Giga-battery factory in Montérégie | One land, two projects

The authorization given to Northvolt to cut down thousands of trees and fill in wetlands, on its land straddling Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville, raised many questions, in particular because the company Quartier MC2 was refused a similar request less than a year earlier. Here is what distinguished the two requests.

A smaller plot

The request for authorization for interventions in wetlands filed by Quartier MC2 targeted less than a third of the land, or 52 hectares, because the company planned to build its project there in phases. The analysis of the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP) therefore focused only on this portion of the land, since the interventions for the subsequent phases should have been subject to different requests. Northvolt’s request immediately targeted the entire land, i.e. 171 hectares.

MC2 district

Quartier MC2 planned to destroy 65,000 m^⁠2 wetlands, i.e. 58% of the total wetlands and 22% of the total area of ​​the land covered by the application. The MELCCFP analysis report lists 35 different wetlands on the ground, including tree swamps, shrub swamps, cattail swamps and ponds. The company planned to fill in 29, totally or partially, to develop a complete neighborhood, with streets, two parks, a school and homes.

Northvolt

Northvolt, for its part, was authorized to destroy a smaller proportion of wetlands than Quartier MC2 planned. The 138,162 m² that the Swedish multinational was authorized to destroy correspond to 53% of the wetlands on the site and 15% of the total area of ​​the land. The fact that these wetlands are largely the result of previous decontamination work on this land in no way diminishes their role and their ecological importance, underlines the MELCCFP in the analyzes of the two projects.

Least bittern

Quartier MC2 wanted in particular to partially destroy the two largest marshes on the land, deemed suitable for the reproduction of the bittern, an endangered species. The company also planned to encroach on the 500 m buffer zone around these marshes, recommended by Environment Canada in its recovery strategy for the species. “The proposed location of the project will not allow the maintenance of the habitat characteristics necessary for the use of the site by the least bittern,” writes the MELCCFP in its request analysis report. Northvolt, however, retains these marshes intact as well as a proportion of the 500 m buffer zone deemed “sufficient” by the MELCCFP.

Noise barrier

Quartier MC2 proposed maintaining a corridor of natural environments with a width of at least 100 m in the northern part of the land, along Route 116, which would however have been insufficient to compensate for the loss of other wetlands, judged the MELCCFP. This corridor would have been bordered by a dike acting as a noise barrier to ensure the tranquility of the future district, which would have modified the relief of the land and led to the destruction of wetlands, both on the land under study and on the remaining portion. , which was not included in the request, added the Ministry.

Swamp “MH17”

Both Quartier MC2 and Northvolt wanted to be authorized to destroy the “MH17” swamp, the fourth largest wetland on the site, with its 10,380 m^⁠2 (which bears another number in Northvolt’s application). This intention, combined with the planned destruction of the two largest wetlands on the land, contributed to the refusal of the MC2 District request by the MLCCFP. Northvolt, which on the other hand is committed to preserving the two largest wetlands on the land, was authorized to fill in the swamp in question.

Different documents

The surface area, number and characteristics of the land elements differ from one project to another, because the “natural environment characterization study” prepared by the firm Stantec, on behalf of Quartier MC2, and the one prepared by CIMA+, on behalf of Northvolt, arrive at different results. The MELCCFP analysis report on the Northvolt project also highlights “contradictions” in the work of CIMA+ and notably mentions the existence on the ground of a watercourse “not considered by CIMA+”. These differences are mentioned in court in the challenge by the Quebec Environmental Law Center (CQDE) of the authorization to begin work granted to Northvolt by the MELCCFP.

Read our text “Northvolt mega-factory: the CQDE continues to contest the green light from Quebec”